Perceptions of Canadian labour and delivery nurses about incident reporting: a qualitative descriptive focus group study.

Background: Estimates of incidents (adverse events) occurring during inpatient hospital stays suggest patient safety demands attention. Improving the safety of health care systems requires understanding incidents and their causes. Labour and delivery nurses can contribute to understanding incidents and incident reporting because they actively identify and report incidents in practice.

A community-based study of sleep and behaviour problems in 12- to 36-month-old children.

Background: While evidence suggests sleep problems are common in young children and linked to behavioural problems, studies of toddlers are rare. This community-based cross-sectional study examined associations between sleep problems and daytime behaviour among 58 children aged 1 to 3 years who attended daycare centres.

Methods: Mothers and daycare providers completed four and three questionnaires, respectively, about children's sleep patterns and behaviour.

A collaborative model to introduce quality and safety content into the undergraduate nursing leadership curriculum.

Today's nursing students need an understanding of quality and safety (Q/S) concepts as well as the nurse's role in all phases of Q/S activities. Nursing students' Q/S learning experiences are typically anecdotal. This article describes a practice-academic partnership that raised students' awareness of Q/S within the practice environment.

Parent-nurse interactions: care of hospitalized children.

Background: An essential component of quality nursing care is nurses' ability to work with parents in the hospital care of their children. However, changes in the health care environment have presented nurses with many new challenges, including meeting family-centred care expectations.

Aim Of The Paper: To report a research study examining the experiences of parents who interacted with nurses in a hospital setting regarding the care of their children.

Eye-poking.

Eye-poking, -rubbing and -pressing are often incorrectly grouped together because of the assumption that they represent variations of the same self-stimulating behaviour. This prospective study of 21 children shows that eye-poking is a distinct, chronic, stereotyped, self-injurious act seen mainly among severely mentally disabled individuals, who may or may not be visually impaired. Eye-poking, which leads to intense, self-induced pain, is a harmful behaviour because it can result in permanent visual loss and even in total blindness.

The septum pellucidum and spatial ability of children with optic nerve hypoplasia.

Animal studies suggest that spatial skills are dependent on an intact septum pellucidum. This theory was tested by comparing patients who were visually impaired due to bilateral optic nerve hypoplasia: 13 with a septum pellucidum were compared with six children without a septum pellucidum. There was no difference in spatial ability.

Rapid cycling in severely multidisabled children: a form of bipolar affective disorder?

A debilitating, regularly recurring, biphasic disorder is described in 6 severely multidisabled children. It was characterized by several days of lethargy, withdrawal, loss of abilities, irritability, and hypersomnolence followed or preceded by a high-energy state for several days during which the children slept very little, at times were euphoric, had improved mental ability, and were hyperactive. These cyclic episodes had been present for years but unexpectedly disappeared in one child.

The treatment of sleep disorders with melatonin.

Fifteen children (most of whom were neurologically multiply disabled) with severe, chronic sleep disorders were treated with 2 to 10mg of oral melatonin, given at bedtime. Nine had fragmented sleep patterns, three had delayed sleep onset and three others had non-specific sleep disturbance of unclear aetiology; all had failed to respond to conventional management. Nine patients had ocular or cortical visual impairment.